John Wesley Chumley (Virginia/Tennessee, 1928-1984), "Foot Path," watercolor on bristol board, winter landscape painting depicting rolling hills dotted with farmsteads and barns, under a blanket of freshly fallen snow. A footpath in the snow is visible far right foreground, leading to a house with large barren tree mid-ground. Signed "Chumley" lower left, titled and dated 1973 en verso. The Bonfoey Gallery (Cleveland, OH) label en verso. Housed under glass in a silver-gilt frame with linen matte and beaded wood liner. Sight: 13 3/4" H x 23 1/4" W. Framed: 24" H x 34" W. Note: This painted was exhibited at Hirschl Adler Galleries, located in New York City, in 1975, together with 18 other works. It is listed on page 6 of the gallery exhibition book, and a copy will be available to the winner of this lot. Biography: John Wesley Chumley was born in 1928 in Rochester, Minnesota while his father, a Tennessee native, was in his surgical residency at Mayo Clinic. He attended McCampbell School and the Tennessee Military Institute in Sweetwater, Tennessee. His concentration on art quickly grew after a football injury. His post-graduate study under Walter Stuempfig at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts further convinced him that his field was realism and the rural countryside his stimulus. As he refined his work, there were other influential centers of art along the way -the Ringling School of Art in Sarasota, Florida, where he met his wife Bettye (Skip) Roberts; and the Fort Worth Center of Art, Fort Worth, Texas, where he was artist-in-residence from 1958-1961. In 1961 the couple moved to a 200-acre farm in Middleton, VA that provided scenery, wildlife, plants and inspiration for the artist. Chumley's character and personality were reflected in the choice of his chief medium -egg tempera, the most difficult and "slowest," although he also painted in watercolors and oil. His painstaking representation of scenery, plants, and lifelike human and animal subjects with tempera -a tedious process involving a mixture of pigment, egg yolk, and water which dried quickly- enabled him to express his perception of light. As John observed, "Light is my bag." (source: Adapted from Askart, taken from http://www.fountaincitytnhistory.info/People5-Chumley.htm with the permission of Fountain City Historian J.C. Tumblin)

PROVENANCE: Private Southern collection.

CONDITION: Painting overall good condition. One area of toning/spotting to paper lower mid margin. Frame with very minor scattered abrasions, some scattered discoloration to linen liner.